The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (“SSI”) has called on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reach agreement at the forthcoming Marine Environmental Protection Committee meeting (MEPC 69) for the quick development of a working plan and framework to reduce shipping’s Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) emissions.
The NGO-led initiative is provoking the industry regulator to show its true intent to commit to the reduction of GHG emissions from shipping following the industry escaping the net at the COP21 negotiations in December 2015.
However, the SSI believes that the industry still needs to take responsibility and align its emissions reduction efforts with the UNFCCC target of stabilising the climate to the less than 2 degrees warming agreed at COP 21. This impactful target requires global GHG emissions to be at least 50% below 1990 levels by 2050. However, the industry’s current rate of emissions growth is incompatible with this target, hence the need for the IMO to act immediately.
In fact, the IMO’s latest figures show that if left unchecked, GHG emissions from shipping activities will increase by up to 250% by 2050, representing 17% of global emissions.
Alastair Fischbacher, CEO, the Sustainable Shipping Initiative deems this simply unacceptable.
He says: “it is critical that the IMO urgently sets out a robust and ambitious plan and framework that sees the industry take responsibility for reducing its emissions output. The time for business as usual is over, and the time for action is now; MEPC 69 is the platform to demonstrate this.”
Fischbacher continues: “It is critical that the IMO now drives this this forward. Right now the opportunity for change is in the industry’s hands, and inaction will increase calls for regulatory and legislative influence from outside shipping. And crucially, any further delays will only increase the scale of the GHG challenge that the industry faces.”
Newly appointed IMO Secretary General, Kitack Lim has publicly voiced that contributing to the fight against climate change is a top priority for the IMO. The MEPC 69 agenda is set to host debate around a number of areas in relation to GHG emissions, including the development of a global data collection scheme and an emissions reduction target, as well as market-based measures to achieve such a target. According to the SSI CEO, a number of member states and industry bodies have submitted papers for the development of a work plan that defines the industry’s fair share of efforts to reduce GHG emissions.
The SSI is a pioneering coalition of over 19 companies from across the global shipping industry led by Forum for the Future and WWF. Members include Bunge, Cargill, China Navigation Company, Gearbulk, IMC, Maersk Line, U-Ming Marine Transport Corporation, Wärtsilä, ABN AMRO Lloyd’s Register, American Bureau of Shipping and AkzoNobel.
MEPC 69 begins on 18th April 2016.
